The Night that Music Died
by ejzah
Summary: "Welcome to the Squid and Dagger's first karaoke night." A little team fic, featuring the core six.


A/N: Requested by chicgeekgirl89 over on Tumblr. A continuation of point 4 on the list I made about the bar: Nell and Eric tried to start a karaoke night, but it was quickly banned after the inaugural event. Nell and Eric still think their rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" was magical. Deeks swears his ears are still ringing.

* * *

"Welcome to the Squid and Dagger's first karaoke night," Deeks announced grandly, gesturing to where an improvised stage had been set up at the far side of the room. They'd strung up a small banner and rearranged a few tables to accommodate the performance area. No one had been brave enough so far to go first.

"Oh hell no," Sam said immediately, looking ready to leave.

"Ooh, I love karaoke!" Nell announced enthusiastically, quickly downing the rest of her drink. Deeks eyed her dubiously. Both her and Beale had arrived before the others and were two or three drinks ahead.

"Maybe we should let somebody else go first," he suggested, but they ignored him.

"What should we sing?"

"How about something from a musical?" Callen suggested with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. Deeks glared at him, but Callen was too busy causing trouble to notice.

"Perfect, I know just the song," Eric said, sharing a smile with Nell who seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. That didn't bode well.

"We might be a little rusty," Nell said apologetically. "It's been a while since we had a karaoke night."

"Exactly how often do you karaoke?" Callen asked.

"Well, not much recently ever since the last place kicked us out," Nell answered, adding with a raised finger. "Which I'd like to point out, was a complete misunderstanding."

"What was a misunderstanding?" Deeks asked with growing concern.

"Don't worry about it," Eric said as Nell took his hand and they hurried over to the stage.

"Alright then. I'm really starting to regret suggesting karaoke night," Deeks said as he passed around a new round of beers. They weren't packed tonight so hopefully it they'd still have a few returning customers after this.

"Come on, give them a chance," Kensi said. "Maybe it won't be so bad."

"Oh, it's definitely going to be bad," Callen countered, chuckling. "I can't wait." Sam glared at him, the effect dulled slightly by the two beers he'd already consumed, and drained the bottle in his hand.

"I'm going to need a lot more beer."

"We'd like to dedicate this song," Nell started, speaking directly into her microphone. Her voice was a little slurred. "To our dear friends." She finished off by shrugging out of her sweater and tossing it to the floor, leaving her in a sleeveless dress that showed quite a bit more skin than normal.

"Oh, she's going to regret this in the morning," Kensi said with a mixture of sympathy and amusement.

Eric gestured grandly in their direction which made Sam groan again. There was a small amount of applause and then Eric turned on the track. The first strains of "I Dreamed a Dream" began to play and they turned to face each other dramatically.

"Deeks, I'm gonna need something a lot stronger," Sam said, looking on in horror as Nell began singing in a slightly off-pitch, operatic voice. Eric joined in a second too late, hurrying to catch up.

"My ears," Deeks groaned as Eric sang in an unnaturally low voice about tigers and hope.

"Remember this next time you think of "fun" new ideas for the bar," Kensi shouted in his ear.

"_I had a dream that life would be_!" Nell belted out, grasping at the air above her head.

"_So different from the hell I'm living_," Eric finished, reaching out to grab her waist for unknown reasons. It had been a few years since Deeks last watched "Les Misérables", but he didn't remember this song being a duet.

"This is awesome," Callen commented with a huge grin while he recorded it all with his phone.

"I thought they could sing better that this," Sam shouted as Eric and Nell's voices mingled in a truly horrendous crescendo.

"Yeah, but they both had three White Russians a piece. I'm surprised Nell is even standing right now," Deeks informed them grimly.

"I told you to cut them off," Kensi reminded him.

"It was a rookie mistake." Kensi just rolled her eyes, taking a long swig of her beer.

"I'll never be able to watch "Les Mis" again," Sam said sadly as the last few notes played. Eric and Nell bowed elaborately, oblivious to the lack of applause.

"Nope, I can't ever unsee that," Kensi agreed and Deeks added, rubbing his temple,

"Or unhear it."

"This is the best night ever," Callen said, still grinning.

"And we're definitely donating the karaoke machine," Deeks decided as a Callen took one more picture.

* * *

Lyrics are from the song, "I Dreamed a Dream", from the musical "Les Misérables".


End file.
